Sundown and Sand

The whole time I was growing up, I was told "You don't like the beach". I kind of grew up believing it, preferring not to really venture onto brown sands and into salty water. So to some it would seem strange that I chose a beach vacation. But I absolutely LOVE the beach! 

Who'd have thought? ;-)

I'm blipping a little out of order- I wanted to process the beach pictures but my poor Mac is maxed out of storage so it's been a struggle to get my decent camera pictures on to the computer ready for processing. 

I took these last Thursday evening, my last official night in PB. I went for a little walk and got a smoothie, which I enjoyed whilst sitting and shooting with both my camera and my phone. I quite liked the low down shots, placing my camera almost on the sand and just snapping to see what I'd get. The light meant I could hardly see- too much glare, but when I looked at them later I was really pleased with how they turned out. 

Today I got up and out after a slightly later (6:30am) wake up. I had a nice breakfast again at Woody's, and headed off on another walk along the beach front. I was gone for a couple of hours, and went to buy a few things I wanted to take home. 

I sat by the pool at the hotel, hoping I'd get a swim. I've been mostly covered up but my neck has taken a bit of a beating from the sun, it's been 24 degrees today :-) So I sat on one of the pool loungers and wrapped my towel around me like a scarf so I didn't burn anymore. It's breezy here so the wind masks the sun, and as any redhead knows, that can be fatal! 

I wanted a swim on my own, partly because I'm always a bit self conscious in a bikini in front of people, and also just because it's nicer to swim without kids. But there appeared to be more kids than I'd seen all week, so I kept watching and then turning back to my book. 

Whilst I sat there, I got talking to a guy also staying at the hotel. "You're not going to catch any sun if you sit like that!" he said, as I turned towards him and peeled back the towel to expose my sunburned neck! We got talking and chatted for an hour or so. It was really nice. I felt a little bit stir crazy in a way, as apart from TV and greetings around town, I hadn't actually had much conversation using my voice all week as it was too expensive to make any calls, so it was really nice to have human contact! 

He was staying with his daughter of 16, and they'd come from the East Coast (snowmageddon!). But she suffered with vertigo and was pretty sick, so was holed up in their hotel room whilst he tried to entertain himself! It was a shame as every time she'd tried to go out and take a few steps outside the hotel she'd felt sick and had to sit down, so he was on his own a lot of the time. I said it would be good if she could join us out here on the sun loungers where at least she could lie down and get some sun even if she couldn't go very far. 

I have been reading Eat, Pray, Love that A lent me. I must admit I didn't love it, but I read about a third of it. And a bit like the author, who prayed for her divorce to be peaceful in the first part of the book, I think I prayed, if you like, not to be lonely, and I like to think that this guy, Ray, was sent so that neither of us would be lonely, just for that hour or two! Silly maybe, but I just wondered whether it might be possible for me to have my wishes answered by some higher being ;-) 

I went for my walk, and was shivery after my smoothie(!) and still, the pool was full. I went upstairs to my room and watched Friends for a bit, and then decided to try again on the way down to do some laundry. It was almost dark but the kids had finally gone and there were a couple of adults in the hot tub, so I quickly whipped off my layers and hopped in! 

It was so nice to sit there with the jets on, relaxing and breathing in all the experience. 

There have definitely been no tears or sadness this trip, only headspace, excitement and exploration. 

I don't think I want to go home......